Abstract

Although good-quality, secure housing is essential to the well-being of every household, housing professionals witnessed a substantial increase in the housing problems faced by individuals and families during the last two decades of the twentieth century. House-building by local authorities and housing associations plummeted from over 107,000 starts in 1978 to 34,000 in 1996, and an unacceptable number of houses (within the total housing stock) remained unfit or in need of urgent repairs. In the owner-occupied sector, the homes of more than 1 million people were repossessed during the slump in the housing market (1990–95) and nearly 2 million households were affected by negative equity. Throughout the 1990s, because of the shortage of affordable housing, homelessness was at least twice as high as it had been in the late 1970s. These problems were, in large part, the result of Conservative governments reducing investment in social housing by half in real terms (1979–96), decreasing the availability of renovation grants in the private sector, and terminating the duty of local authorities to provide permanent housing for homeless families.

Item Type:

Book Section

Additional Information:

[1] Other University of Greenwich staff have authored chapters in this book. List of contributors: Paul Balchin, Gregory Bull, David Isaac, Maureen Rhoden, John O'Leary, Jane Weldon, Pauline Forrester, Mark Pawlowski, R.Shean McConnell [2] Available as an e-book in MyiLibrary: http://lib.myilibrary.com/Open.aspx?id=19503